April 2018 Sightings

45° Sunny and very windy.

1-1:30 pm active in sheltered sunny garden. Plenty of wild broccoli up. 48 degrees. Warmer near walls and ground.

Question Mark visited fruit dish all afternoon.

[Congrats to Dolores: our first e. pine elfin. The average first emergence for South Jersey is April 5. Weather has delayed this and other early April species. jc]

52° some sun, little wind.

Woke up at 7am to a yard temp of 27°F but by 2:45pm things were, *ahem*, heating up… ;-) (A single cabbage white was seen in the same area a couple of hours earlier, as well as a single in the yard the following day, 4/12/18.)

Cool and Breezy 50's

[Congrats to Harvey on our first Henry's – thanks to the weather this species is about two weeks late. See the blog for average date. jc]

Low 50's with sun. Today marks the new late first date for Henry's elfin.

[Yes, Jack and Harvey T tie for the coveted First Henry's Award – unless one of you can provide clock data ;-) jc]

Sunny, warm but a bit breezy.

Elfin was probably Henry's as this area is good for them.

[This is our first American lady of 2018, although we had a lady, sp. on March 31 found by Sandra Keller and Chris Herz in SAL. Nice find, HT. jc]

noon, 65 degrees

Working with new camera and haven't worked all the bugs in. I thought half a clear image is better than none in this case.

[Nice find, JM. Our first Juvenal's…and also our first skipper. jc]

4:30-5:30, 72 degrees. Sunny, but windy. Commas by tie-off point

Azure sp arose about 2pm from area where seen two weeks ago. Tried photo when resettling across garden in gray leaves. No luck. Cabbage present throughout the day 11am-3:30. Cabbage will become numerous very soon and not worth mentioning.

Late afternoon wind found this Cabbage White clinging to various daffodils. At 7 p.m. was apparently content to roost for the night on a daffodil. Nice fresh scales, many of them black.

The Red Admiral was found at the location I refer to "comma corner." This is my quote from the log last year on 2-23-17: "Strange that this Admiral was in the exact location of my first one last year on 3-1-16." This year now makes it three years in a row in the exact same spot! Also of note is that it was the first RA reported in '16 and '17, and the third report in '17. Anyone have idea about this odd phenomenon? The sulphor (bright clear yellow) was cruising down the road at full speed, but took a brief moment to land next to me.

Yesterday's Cabbage White spent the night on the white daffodil. It took flight just after 10 a.m.

finally my first butterflies of the year!!

Started work in the garden today. Jenny and I saw 8 Lady species but they didn't stop to be ID'd. They were flying north to the south.

Observations made between 11:30 & 3:50. 70 to 83 degrees with S,WSW, & SSW winds at 15-21 mph. Activity was less than expected. Most Anglewings were on the move with warm temps allowing maximum flight. The most interesting bug was a Henry's Elfin which repeatedly basked dorsally. It also shivered with cloud cover and 70 degree temp. Initially I thought that it was deformed, but further observations did not support this.

[An intriguing report and photo. Has anyone else among our observers seen this behavior in a Henry's – or any other elfin? jc]

I watched 4 orange sulphurs fly over a 1/2 an acre of dandelions for over 30 minutes. Sometimes they would even land for 2 or 3 seconds.

[This is our first American copper report for 2018. Good find, JM!]

80 degrees plus here between 1:50 & 3:40 p.m. Could not chase down an American Lady female which was actively seeking out its host. My first American Copper had already been seen and dispatched by a small spider.

Interesting to watch the Comma nectaring on the flowering tree.

[If you take a close look at Steve's comma photo, you can see that it is a "broken comma." It is an especially interesting specimen in that the small section is more round than angular. For more about this topic visit Jack Connor's blog from May 16 2017. -jm]